Raging Heart On (Lucas Brothers #2)(98)

“I’ve read your file,” she begins, and I ignore her. “Why don’t you ever tell the parole board you’re sorry for your crime?”

Her question angers me. How many people have asked me that? I have f*cking lost count. “I’m not sorry, my only regret is that I only got to kill him once.”

“Saying things like that is why you’re on your fourth parole hearing, can’t you even feign remorse?”

“Why? I’m glad the son of a bitch isn’t breathing. I’m thrilled the last face he saw was mine. No point in lying about it.”

“Don’t you want to be free? To have a life again, Max?”

I like the way she says my name. It makes me react, and I’m not just talking my dick, though that is definitely alert, hearing her say my name causes something in my chest to hurt. Maybe it’s just the sea grapes.

“There’s nothing for me out here,” I tell her, dusting off my hands. I go and sit beside her and rip off one of the sleeves on my jumpsuit. Once I get that done, I do the other and carefully dry her foot off. Then I take part of one of the torn sleeves and wrap it around her foot, before putting it back in her shoe. I repeat my actions with the other foot.

“There could be,” she says while I’m tending to her, and I ignore those words. She’s wrong. I did what I did, and there’s no going back.

“Time to get a move on,” I say, helping her up and effectively shutting her down. I haven’t got time for her questions or the thoughts that having her around put in my head.

This time, I stay off the path. I know where I’m going, I just honestly don’t know why. I should wait to be found and let Tess get back to her world, which is far, far away from my own. I know that logically, I just can’t manage to do that. Not yet, not right now. Maybe all the time without having a woman around has bothered me. I just can’t let her go, even if it would be better for both of us if I did.





7


Tess


It feels like we’ve been walking for days. In reality, it has probably only been hours. Max hasn’t said anything else, and it has been radio silence except for heavy breathing, which is all mine. Apparently, I’m out of shape, and Mad Max is a freaking machine.

I thought Florida was all flat land, but Max has somehow managed to find an actual hill. When we come over the top of it, he stops abruptly and jerks me so that I crash into the back of him.

“Umpf,” I grunt.

Silence.

“Yeah I didn’t expect an apology,” I mutter. There’s nothing around us, and I’m not sure what he finds so captivating. “Um…Max?”

Silence.

“Fine, don’t mind me. I just came here to try and save your ass and help you get out of jail today—which, by the way, I totally would have, had you cooperated. But, no…you had to get pissy and now I find myself kidnapped, threatened, spanked like a two-year-old child…”

“Don’t f*cking lie,” he growls, and I stop my tirade to look up at him.

“Nothing about what we did resembles punishing a child. I can show you the difference if you want. I’d be happy to.”

I see the threat in his eyes and decide silence from me might be my best recourse. He stands there for another minute, watching me and then he goes over to a weeping willow that is covered in Spanish moss. He stands with his back against the trunk and walks straight ahead, heel to toe, almost if he is counting off paces. While he is distracted, I look around for something to defend myself with. I find a rock a few feet in front of me. I bend down to pick it up, being as slow and quiet as I can. I keep my eyes on Max the entire time, not wanting him to see me.

I finally manage to grasp it, and I feel like I’ve won a war. With the rock in hand, and sadly it is small enough to clench my hand around, I start backing up. Once I put at least three hundred feet between Max and me, I turn to take off running.

“If you run Tess, you will not like what happens next,” he yells out. That makes me hesitate. His deep voice shortening my name and the way it rolls off his tongue nearly makes me groan aloud. For that reason alone I take off running. He’s just too dangerous to me.

I run back the way we came, my heart pounding as hard as my feet on the ground. I can hear Max behind me. He’s back there somewhere and fear floods my system. I know if he catches me I’m in trouble, I’m just not quite sure how deep that trouble will go. I have no willpower around him.

I’m just starting to go down the small incline he led us up when I hear him. He’s much closer than I thought he would be. I try to speed up, but I know it’s useless. Max wrapped my feet earlier, but they hurt like hell and my shoes, even without my much-adored heels, aren’t made for running, especially in Florida swampland with an escaped convict on my tail.

Max grabs me by the upper arm, and I scream. I don’t think, I just react. I turn into him, still screaming as loud as I can. I take the hand with the rock and slam the side of his face. It’s not big enough to do a lot of damage. It is, however, forceful enough that surprise works to my advantage and I’m free. Max stumbles back and again I take off. I don’t get ten feet before he pulls me down by the backs of my legs. I sail forward on the hard ground and crash hard. I fall face first. I try to catch myself, but I do a poor job of it. He roughly turns me around. I try to bring the rock up to hit him again. Max holds my hand and applies so much pressure, I think he might break it. No matter what I do, I can’t move it. Then, I see his face. His hair is rumpled, his dark eyes so intense and his face is as cold as steel. He’s mad and not just a little. He’s furious.